“Why?” I ask, exasperated.
Before she can answer, Katy is, unsurprisingly, tackled by a tiny, rambunctious human walking in the opposite direction.
“Ashley!” Katy says, pushing the raven-haired girl off her, slightly irritated.
“Oh my God, Ithoughtthat was you! I haven’t seen you in forever, lover,” the girl squeals, bouncing on her toes in front of us. Just watching her tires me. “Your hair is so cute. You’re so lucky it’s not frizzy like mine. Some people get all the luck.”
Katy introduces the two of us. “Nice to meet you,” I say at the same time Ashley says, “Didn’t we meet at that pool party? You’re the one who was dating—”
“No, that’s someone else. You’re thinking of Elise,” Katy snaps. “We have to go, okay, Ash? But I’ll see you around, okay?”
“Oh, all right,” Ashley says, disappointed. “Text me later, okay? I’ve missed you! Bye, lover!” she chirps before crossing the road and disappearing into the parking lot.
“Who wasthat,lover?” I whisper once she’s gone, and Katy groans.
“She’s a junior from Meridian. Total drama queen. But speaking of lovers, let’s focus on the task at hand,” Katy says as we walk through the automatic doors. “We’re getting this boy’s name, age, blood type, Social Security number, and mother’s maiden name.”
“Are we planning to hack his bank account or ask him out?”
Katy laughs, but it sounds oddly strangled. “Idolike to multitask.”
Her agitation is contagious. “Is this even a good idea? I mean, he blew me off last night. He hasn’t asked me formyname. Maybe this isn’t worth it.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Katy says. “I just want to see who he is.”
With a decidedly smaller crowd of moviegoers than on Monday, when we were last here, I spot him almost as soon as we enter, facing away from us. He’s wearing the blackCINEXPERIENCET-shirt again, his red hair short in the back.
“That’s him,” I whisper.
Katy, a full head shorter than me, stands on her tiptoes and whips her head from left to right. “Where, where?”
I pinch her arm. “Don’t be so obvious!”
“Ouch!” she yelps. She’s impatient when she asks,“Where?”
I point at the concession area. He still has his back to us.
Katy’s immediate reaction looks, strangely, like relief. Then her face crumples with disapproval. “I thought you said he was cute.”
I’m taken aback by her response. “Heis.I mean, you can’t see his face right now, but—”
“Ican,” she says. “And he’s, like, fifty. This is really gross, Addie.”
“No, no, no,” I say, realizing that she’s looking to the left of the boy, at a moviegoer whose head is peppered with gray. I take her chin with my hand and force it a few inches to the right.“Him.”
Katy is very still for a second. Then she says, “I feel like this is an elaborate joke.”
“Why?”
“Whoare you seeing?” she asks again.
“The tall guy. Red hair.”
“Red?” Katy repeats almost too quietly for me to hear.
“Yeah.”
I feel Katy’s reaction more than see it. She shudders, seems to breathe in but not out. And without my even understanding why, something plummets from my throat to my stomach, a pebble of fear.
